Opera Scotland

Dido and Aeneas 1986Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Dame Janet Baker gave her final staged performances of opera in 1982 - a revival of Mary Stuart at the Coliseum, and new productions of Gluck's Alceste at Covent Garden and Orfeo ed Euridice at Glyndebourne.

These concerts including Dido took place several years after she had last worked with Scottish Opera, and were her final operatic performances in Scotland. The Purcell work, even though it was always closely associated with her, was a piece she had only given here once before, in 1978 when Scottish Opera took her to the Aix-en-Provence Festival then paired it with Holst's Savitri in Glasgow (without taking it to Edinburgh or Aberdeen).

The first part of the programme consisted of Britten's arrangement of the Purcell Chaconne in G minor, followed by the Britten Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, featuring Neil Mackie (tenor) and Robert Cook (horn).